During undergrad, I used to be the guy who was always looking for a get rich quick scheme.
You could call me a 'category hopper.'
You know, those people who switch from one category to the next in a desperate attempt to find the cash cow.
That was me in the beginning of my business journey.
I got into business at the age of 12.
During that time, we didn't have iPods & mp3 players.
It was the good old fashioned CD's.
Music was huge back in those days as it is now.
The only problem was that music was hella expensive!
Well, luckily I was able to cheat code thru that.
Whenever I would visit Nairobi, I would get CD's for super cheap!
1 dollar is worth 103 Kenya Shillings
By the time I would come back to the states, I would have 10 disks for what it would cost for 2 in the U.S.
All this music made me somewhat popular in school.
People asked me to borrow my CDs.
I did them one better.
I told them to pick their favorite songs from each CD & I would make them their own customized disk.
This set the whole school on FIRE.
I'd sell each disk for 10 dollars.
Even though it took like a penny to produce.
Margins = HIGH AS FUCK.
Is this what business was?
It's so easy, I thought.
Your boy was buying the good food in the cafeteria. No longer that nasty shit that they would plop on your tray.
Felt like a king.
'Dang man, so you must be a multi millionaire by now, right?'
Not quite.
After people found out what I was doing, other hustlers began to pop up.
The barrier to entry was virtually nonexistent.
Other people went to business together, pooled their money, bought CDs and ultimately sold for much lower prices than I did.
They were also buying the newest music too.
A 12 year old me was balling in Kirinyaga, but didn't have the budget to buy nonstop music in the US.
I was too shy back then to collab with others & partner up as well.
Needless to say, I was ran out of business.
Fast forward a decade later.
Now I am a college kid who is starting his first Amazon business.
I decided to start the business off by selling the easiest thing there was to sell.
Cell Phone Cases!
'Well, did you become successful?'
Nope, I failed.
Barrier of entry once again, was nonexistent.
'Damn dude, that must have sucked.'
It did....
I went onto have a string of failures in the business world until I made a MASSIVE realization!
'What was that?'
What comes easy, goes easy.
This has been my biggest insight regarding steemit business & life for the past couple of years.
Which is why I am no longer a fan of gimmicks, get rich quick schemes & other shortcuts.
If it was so easy, then any monkey with 2 hands can pull it off.
Where is the joy in that?
People come to me & tell me all the time that I should shock my audience more by talking about political scandals & gossip.
They say I should work on more attention grabbing headlines to make people open my steemit blogs.
They also say I should blog shit about others publicly to generate more attention.
Nah...
Any bubba can do that.
My brand is solely built around value & steem power.
It's about steemit storytelling my experiences with soft skills to help others build confidence & steem power, that's it.
Those who stay, stay.
Those who leave, leave.
Will it take longer than the get rich quick route?
Sure.
But will it be longer lasting?
Absolutely.
It's because I am taking time to invest in a primal resource that money can't buy.
Trust.
Which is what I encourage you to do as well.
Even though something SEEMS easy in the front end, understand that it is rarely the case in the back end.
Anyone that you see who has been successful on steemit for YEARS had to go thru a lot of loopholes to get there.
Which is why I don't hate on minnows, dolphins, whales & high status people.
They were not magically put there.
Well, maybe some were.
But to MAINTAIN that position for 5+ years requires a certain level of skill, mental toughness & perseverance.
Ask yourself.
What are you currently investing in?
Are you being a category hopper like I used to be?
Or are you someone who is providing consistent value, building trust & growing an empire that the WORLD could not take down even if they tried?
Just questions to ponder when you doubt embarking on the road less traveled.
Till tomorrow.
Mr. Power Up ⚡
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